Visual Effects Society Names the Most Influential Movies Ever

To be filed under “people love lists”: the Visual Effects Society, a 3400-member-strong coalition of entertainment tech professionals including artists, producers, and other skilled positions, has undertaken a massive new project. In the spirit of the BBC’s recent Greatest Comedies of All Time poll, the VES surveyed their many enrollees about what they consider to be the most technically innovative films ever made and compiled the list below in a new canon of films that have pushed the boundaries of what is possible for movies. And, naturally, James Cameron’s pretty much running the show.

Though the list duly begins with Georges Melies (remember, from Hugo, and also from real life?) and his 1902 craftsman’s wonder A Trip to the Moon, J-Cam is the unofficial king of the list with a whopping six titles on the final count. Terminators 1 and 2, Titanic, The Abyss, Avatar, and Aliens all landed on the 70-entry list, stitched together from a 50-movie list enumerated one decade ago, and updated now with twenty new entries. Other entries are pretty much expected — there are your Blade Runners, your Metropolises, your Who Framed Roger Rabbits. Among the more surprising recent additions are Ex Machina, a film that revolutionized the notion of us being able to bang robots, and Mad Max: Fury Road, a fully-immersive portal to an arid post-apocalyptic hellscape. The full list has been reproduced below, with a video accompaniment embedded as well. Feel free to peruse and take the edge off that Monday morning:

300 (2007)2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)A Trip to the Moon (1902)The Abyss (1989)Alien (1979)Aliens (1986)An American Werewolf in London (1981)Apollo 13 (1995)Avatar (2009)Babe (1995)Back to the Future (1985)Blade Runner (1982)Citizen Kane (1941)Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1958)The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)District 9 (2009)E.T. the Extraterrestrial (1982)The Empire Strikes Back (1980)Ex Machina (2015)Fantastic Voyage (1966)The Fifth Element (1997)Forbidden Planet (1956)Forrest Gump (1994)Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)Ghostbusters (1984)Godzilla (1954)Gravity (2013)Inception (2010)Independence Day (1996)Jason and the Argonauts (1963)Jaws (1975)Jurassic Park (1993)King Kong (1933)King Kong (2005)Life of Pi (2012)Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)The Lost World (1925)Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)Mary Poppins (1964)The Mask (1994)The Matrix (1999)Metropolis (1927)Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)Planet of the Apes (1968)Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)Return of the Jedi (1983)Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958)Sin City (2005)Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)Star Wars (1977)Starship Troopers (1997)Superman: The Movie (1978)The Ten Commandments (1956)The Terminator (1984)Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)The Thing (1982)Titanic (1997)Total Recall (1990)Toy Story (1995)Tron (1982)Transformers (2007)Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)The War of the Worlds (1953)The Wizard of Oz (1939)What Dreams May Come (1998)Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)